The Care and Feeding of Children eBook

It should be cooled as just described, as its temperature
is usually somewhat raised during transportation If
it has been bottled at a dairy, the cream or the top-milk
may be removed after an hour or so.

How should milk and cream be handled when they
are purchased in bulk?

Such milk should never be used for infants when it
is possible to obtain bottled milk, as it is much
more liable to contamination. Both cream and
milk should be poured at once into covered vessels
and kept in the coolest place possible. The cream
and top-milk will seldom rise upon such milk with
any satisfactory regularity.

What are the important things to be secured in
nursery refrigerators?

Absolute cleanliness is essential; hence the inner
portion should be of metal. Those made entirely
of metal are unsatisfactory as in them the ice melts
very quickly. If the ordinary metal refrigerator
sold is encased in a wooden box, we have the best
form. Another easy way of securing the same result
Is to make for the refrigerator a covering or “cosey”
of felt or heavy quilting, which can be easily removed
when wet or soiled.

The compartments of the refrigerator should be so
arranged that the bottles of milk are either in contact
with the ice or very near it. The supply of ice
should be abundant. Often the amount of ice is
so small, and the bottles so far away, that the temperature
of the milk is never below 60 deg. or 65 deg.
F. To be really effective a refrigerator should have
a temperature where the milk is placed of not over
50 deg. F. The temperature should be tested with
the nursery thermometer from time to time to ascertain
what results are being obtained. Spoiled milk
owing to a faulty refrigerator is to be blamed for
many attacks of acute illness among infants.
Next to the feeding-bottles it is the one thing in
the nursery which should receive the closest attention.

THE MODIFICATION OF COW’S MILK

Can cow’s milk be fed to infants without
any changes?

No; for although it contains similar elements to those
in mother’s milk, they are not identical, and
they are not present in the same proportions.

Is this a matter of much importance?

It is of the greatest importance. There are few
infants who can digest cow’s milk unless it
is changed. To change cow’s milk so as to
make it more nearly resemble mother’s milk is
called modifying cow’s milk.

How is this milk whose proportions have been changed
distinguished from the original unchanged milk?

The changed milk is usually called “modified
milk”? the original unchanged milk is known
as “plain milk,” “whole milk,”
“straight milk,” or is referred to simply
as “milk.”

What are the principal differences between cow’s
milk and mother’s milk?